Category Archives: Nordmarka hike

For navigation, I used a Samsung Note 3 with Locus Pro and OpenAndroMaps (offline map of Norway with Elevate hiking theme pack). It’s the best app I found for offline maps so far. Highly recommended. I also had a paper map and a compass with me as a backup but didn’t use them very often. The GPS tracking would drain the battery within a couple of hours so I used my good old Garmin Forerunner 310 for this. This four years old and touch screen free (great!) fitness watch still has a battery life of 12-14 hours.

I also took a GoPro with me and took short videos occasionally. Here is complete video:

I woke up at 7:30 and the sun was shining on the tent. It hasn’t been really cold in the night either. That was a good start. Unfortunately, I had an annoying headache, probably because of the dehydration, so I had some ibuprofen as first breakfast. I got out of the tent and had to get into my wet shoes again. I really need better shoes for the next time.. Then I had a terrible second breakfast made from porridge and some nuts. I forgot to bring a cup and was too lazy to boil water twice so I poured the instant coffee powder directly into the porridge. I didn’t bring sugar either.. So this breakfast was terrible but it worked: Energy and caffeine. I packed my stuff, which was easy because nothing was wet and cleaned up to leave no trace behind. I was walking again at 8:30. I could even start the day in a T-shirt. This day was going to be beautiful! The ground was much drier today as well. The trails were also getting broader, but that’s how it is when you come closer to civilization again, I guess.

I walked fast and realized that I will be back in Oslo early today. I made about 5 km per hour on these trails and could see Holmenkollen coming closer quickly.

After two hours of walking, I arrived in Tryvann. It looked pretty sad in this time of the year:

Then I needed just 45 minutes to get to the Lillevann “subway” station to get back to Oslo S. Today I just walked 12 mostly easy kilometers. Almost nothing in comparison to yesterday.

Of course there was bus for train replacement today. But this didn’t mater much. The last 1.5 km of walking home were the problem. Now I could feel the hike in my aching knees and hips. But thinking back, this was a really nice tour. Nordmarka is a beautiful area and perfect for a weekend hike. Maybe I should just take the first day a bit easier next time.

The day started early at 6:30. Thomas was driving to the mountains so he could drop me off in Oslo. That was a good start for the weekend. From Oslo, I took the train to Grua, which took about an hour. Grua seemed to be a nice little village but I didn’t see much off it because the beginning of the trail was pretty close to the train station, a bit hidden behind a school and a ski slope to climb. Here I took a first picture:

And there it was, the trail which was heading west for the first kilometers, into the woods of Nordmarka. It was pretty cold with less than 10 degrees and gusts of wind, but when the sun was out, it was very nice. The paths were marked well and soon I was away from the civilization.

After two hours of walking, I ended up at this creepy house on top of Bislingflaka. Maybe an old restaurant.

I met two other groups of hikers up here. Seemed that this is a popular place to spent the night. But it wasn’t even lunch time for me yet. The plan was to get to the lake Gjerdingen and find a lunch spot. So I started to walk down the hill again. But I faced some problems here, which turned out to be really annoying. I just had to cross a small swamp. My shoes were water proof once (Gore tex) but after a year or two of usage, they were as waterproof as my running shoes. So my socks got soaking wet and they didn’t dry in the shoes for the rest of the day of course.

I found an askew grill cabin next to the lake and stopped for lunch. until then, I finished 12 kilometers already and it was just 12:30. Annoyed about my wet shoes, I stayed in a gravel road for while. But even from these roads, the nature was beautiful.

In the afternoon, it was getting warmer again and I went back into the woods. It was nice walking in a t-shirt and the paths were not as wet any more. The weather was funny.. Sometimes bright sunshine and warm, then ten minutes later soft hail and wind. This alternated most of the day. But all in all, it was really nice! Later in the afternoon I realized that I could make it to the Kikut peak and planned to look for a camp spot close by. The trail up to the top was pretty steep sometimes and cost some energy after this long day. But the view was worth it.

Then I was walking over the ridge for 4 more kilometer until I reached the actual top. From here I could see may goal for the first time: Holmenkollen or Tryvann with the ski slopes. The top on right with the tower on top:

I had walked 30 kilometers already and it was 17:30, so I was more than ready to make camp. I started to descent and luckily I found a good spot soon after. There was a deforested area on a hillside facing south with an mostly flat spot under some trees next to it. It needed some cleaning from branches but I had a pretty view over the lake Fyllingen. I hoped for warm sunshine on the tent in the next morning.

I set up the tent and made dinner (hikers special: tomato mackerel with spaghettini). I was pretty done from the 31.5 km hiking with about 800 total height meters. I fell asleep at 20:30 but woke up every half hour to drink some water. I must have been completely dehydrated. I finished more than a liter of water in the night. Besides of that, it was a quiet night, except of the birds singing. But I wasn’t bothered by that at all.

Finally we had a warm week in Norway and I got the urge to get out again. I had a lot of trouble with my bikes lately so the idea of going for a hike instead of a bike tour was growing. Having a 4-day weekend coming up was perfect as well. I have been in Nordmarka (the forest area north of Oslo) before but only in a small part in the south east. It was very nice and you don’t realize that you are that close to the city at all. This time I wanted to try something more challenging. I will try to cross the Marka alone and if possible in two days. The straight way is about 55km, which sounds like a lot of kilometers for two days but I will pack enough food for three days at least.
Unfortunately, the temperatures dropped just before the weekend but this didn’t stop me now. At least there was no rain in the forecast.

I spread out all my gear for the hike:

The heaviest part is the sleeping bag, which is “comfortable” at up to -5 degrees. It may be below zero in the night, so it’s good to bring this one, even though it weighs 1.8kg. I will attach a gear list in a later post.
In total I had 12kg in the backpack in the end. That’s not too bad, I think.
So tomorrow morning I will take the train to Grua in the north of Nordmarka and start walking south, back to Oslo. I am looking forward to be out in the nature again!